AIR CLEANERS SIZING 

TABLE
for Ambient Air Cleaning
The term "ambient air cleaning", as used on this website, is the process of cleaning all the indoor air in the room or facility where there is
an air quality issue.  This is in contrast to the term "source capture" which refers to capturing air contaminants at their source of emission
before they disperse throughout the room or facility air.

The objective is to provide enough air cleaning capacity so as to clean the air at least as fast, if not faster, than the contaminants are
being emitted into the air.  In other words, the faster contaminants are emitted into the air, the faster the air needs to be cleaned.  This
translates into cleaning the air more frequently or more times, each hour.  The rule of thumb typically used to match the air cleaning
capacity to the air contaminant severity and ensure that the air cleaner(s) do not become overwhelmed by air contaminant emissions is
illustrated in the following table.

Air Cleaner Sizing "Rule of Thumb"

Severity of Typical Frequency of
Air Contamination Environment Air Filtration
filter all the air
Light Residential
4-6 times each hour
filter all the air
Moderate Commercial
8 times each hour
filter all the air
Heavy Industrial
10 times each hour
filter all the air
Critical Medical Isolation
12 times each hour

The frequency of air filtration is commonly known as air changes per hour (ACH).  The level of air cleaning capacity is usually designated
in terms of cubic feet of air cleaned per minute (CFM) or delivered1 CFM.  The amount of CFM required from the air cleaning equipment
depends on the volume of air to be cleaned in the facility and the ACH required to deal with the air contamination severity.

 How to determine total delivered airflow needed

The table below provides an indication of the volume of air to allocate to each air cleaner in order to achieve the desired ACH.   For
instance, if it is determined that an ACH of 8 facility air filtrations per hour is necessary, and, the volume of air in the facility to be
cleaned is 3,750 cubic feet, then the desired amount of filtered airflow from the air cleaning equipment is 500 CFM.  Once this CFM
number is determined, it is possible to select appropriate equipment to deal with the air quality issues.  This CFM number
represents the total amount of air cleaning CFM required, not necessarily the amount of CFM for one particular air cleaner.  In
other words, in the example just given, 500 CFM is needed, but if the air purifier being considered will only provide 250 CFM, then
two air purifiers are necessary to provide the required amount of total filtered airflow.
 How to determine the area size a single air cleaner will filter
If you have a particular air cleaner in mind and would like to know the size area that it will clean, first determine the delivered
airflow in CFM for the air cleaner from it's specifications.  This is generally available from the product literature.  Scroll down the
left column of the following table to the CFM figure closest but less than the delivered airflow of the selected machine.  Next, look
at the volume of air corresponding to the CFM in the table.  Divide the volume by the ceiling height of the room to determine the
area in square feet.

Volume of Air per Machine vs. Contamination Levels (60Hz electric) 2

Hospital Hospital
Contaminatio Moderat
Lightest Lighter Light Heavy Isolatio Operatin
n Level: e
n g Room

Recommende 2 4 6 8 10 12 25
(every 30 (every 15 (every 10 (every 7.5 (every 6 (every 5 (every 2.4
d ACH: minutes) minutes) minutes) minutes) minutes) minutes) minutes)

Air Cleaner Volume of air (cubic feet) allocated to an individual air cleaner
airflow  with delivered CFM rating in left column versus desired ACH above.
(delivered1 CFM) e.g. air cleaner with 500 CFM delivered airflow will clean 3,750 cuft of air 8 times each hour.

100 3,000 1,500 1,000 750 600 500 240

150 4,500 2,250 1,500 1,125 900 750 360

200 6,000 3,000 2,000 1,500 1,200 1,000 480

250 7,500 3,750 2,500 1,875 1,500 1,250 600

300 9,000 4,500 3,000 2,250 1,800 1,500 720

350 10,500 5,250 3,500 2,625 2,100 1,750 840

400 12,000 6,000 4,000 3,000 2,400 2,000 960

450 13,500 6,750 4,500 3,375 2,700 2,250 1,080

500 15,000 7,500 5,000 3,750 3,000 2,500 1,200

550 16,500 8,250 5,500 4,125 3,300 2,750 1,320

600 18,000 9,000 6,000 4,500 3,600 3,000 1,440

650 19,500 9,750 6,500 4,875 3,900 3,250 1,560

700 21,000 10,500 7,000 5,250 4,200 3,500 1,680

750 22,500 11,250 7,500 5,625 4,500 3,750 1,800

800 24,000 12,000 8,000 6,000 4,800 4,000 1,920

850 25,500 12,750 8,500 6,375 5,100 4,250 2,040

900 27,000 13,500 9,000 6,750 5,400 4,500 2,160

950 28,500 14,250 9,500 7,125 5,700 4,750 2,280

1,000 30,000 15,000 10,000 7,500 6,000 5,000 2,400

1,100 33,000 16,500 11,000 8,250 6,600 5,500 2,640

1,200 36,000 18,000 12,000 9,000 7,200 6,000 2,880

1,300 39,000 19,500 13,000 9,750 7,800 6,500 3,120

1,400 42,000 21,000 14,000 10,500 8,400 7,000 3,360

1,500 45,000 22,500 15,000 11,250 9,000 7,500 3,600

1,600 48,000 24,000 16,000 12,000 9,600 8,000 3,840

1,700 51,000 25,500 17,000 12,750 10,200 8,500 4,080

1,800 54,000 27,000 18,000 13,500 10,800 9,000 4,320

1,900 57,000 28,500 19,000 14,250 11,400 9,500 4,560

2,000 60,000 30,000 20,000 15,000 12,000 10,000 4,800

2,500 75,000 37,500 25,000 18,750 15,000 12,500 6,000

3,000 90,000 45,000 30,000 22,500 18,000 15,000 7,200

3,500 105,000 52,500 35,000 26,250 21,000 17,500 8,400

4,000 120,000 60,000 40,000 30,000 24,000 20,000 9,600

4,500 135,000 67,500 45,000 33,750 27,000 22,500 10,800

5,000 150,000 75,000 50,000 37,500 30,000 25,000 12,000

6,000 180,000 90,000 60,000 45,000 36,000 30,000 14,400

105,00
7,000 210,000 0 70,000 52,500 42,000 35,000 16,800

120,00
8,000 240,000 0 80,000 60,000 48,000 40,000 19,200

135,00
9,000 270,000 0 90,000 67,500 54,000 45,000 21,600
 150,00 100,00
10,000 300,000 0 0 75,000 60,000 50,000 24,000

225,00 150,00
15,000 450,000 0 0 112,500 90,000 75,000 36,000

300,00 200,00 120,00

20,000 600,000 0 0 150,000 0 100,000 48,000

375,00 250,00 150,00

25,000 750,000 0 0 187,500 0 125,000 60,000

450,00 300,00 180,00

30,000 900,000 0 0 225,000 0 150,000 72,000

1,050,00 525,00 350,00 210,00

35,000 0 0 0 262,500 0 175,000 84,000

1,200,00 600,00 400,00 240,00

40,000 0 0 0 300,000 0 200,000 96,000

1,350,00 675,00 450,00 270,00

45,000 0 0 0 337,500 0 225,000 108,000

1,500,00 750,00 500,00 300,00

50,000 0 0 0 375,000 0 250,000 120,000

 
Notes:
1
IMPORTANT WARNING: Delivered CFM is the rate of air flow through the air cleaner with all filters installed.  Beware, some
manufacturers cite 'free flow' CFM or CFM '@0"wg', which refer to the performance of the motor and blower combination only, without
any air resistance due to the filters.  Although we only use delivered airflow values, with other vendors, you should always confirm that
the figures are delivered and not free flow as nothing should be left to chance.
2
Figures based on 60Hz electricity.  If 50Hz electricity is used to operate air cleaner, reduce CFM and Volumes by 20%.
 

The above table was developed using formulas here.